There are many kinds of fastener that may be utilized in order to fasten monuments and other interior components to a structure of a building or a vehicle. Of particular interest is the fastening of seats, or other interior components, for example, to a floor of an aircraft. The floor of the aircraft traditionally includes rows of channels running the length of the aircraft floor with location cutouts at one inch spacing in which a seat may be attached. Attachment of the seat to the channels is accomplished by sliding a mushroom-shaped fastener through a seat, then through a cutout of the channel's flange, thereafter securing the mushroom fastener to the seat and channel. While mushroom-shaped fasteners provide secure attachment, it is, however, time intensive especially when the installation occurs in a blind application, i.e., an application where you cannot inspect the underside of the fastener.
Several blind fastener configurations exist that may be used to attach a seat to a floor system requiring blind fastening. One device is a “Cleco” fastener, which may used to hold panels in position prior to riveting. This fastener uses a pair of opposing barbs that are spring closed, thereby allowing insertion of the fastener into a hole. A spreader bar is then pushed between the barbs of the fastener thereby filling the hole and allowing the barbs to grip the back or blind side of the hole. Other blind fasteners use variants of the Cleco fastener including multiple barbed flanges or a threaded spreader bar. While the existing blind fasteners provide attachment support to a structure, they have difficulty adjusting to a wide range of structure thickness or to surfaces having variable or stepped thickness while providing positive clamping of the attaching components. Moreover, blind fasteners may be difficult to remove, in some instances are not reusable without replacement parts, and many times are made for a one-time use.
It is therefore desirable to provide a fastening device that improves the installation, inspection or removal assembly process. Specifically, it is desirable to provide a fastening device that can be rapidly installed from the top down and providing a secure, high strength attachment. Also, it is desirable to provide a fastening device that can be rapidly and reusably removed from the top up. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a fastening device that is capable of variable adjustment for selective attachment to a constant, variable or stepped thickness of different attachment surfaces.